Expected Completion Date of PhD:
May 2020
CV(PDF)
Major Field:
Macroeconomics, Political Economy
Dissertation Title:
Rethinking
growth and distribution in the US: Financial, healthcare and
professional-business services as intermediate consumption of the economy
Profile:
My research focuses on sectoral
dynamics of U.S. growth and distribution since 1947, in particular after 1980. In
my dissertation, I explore the impacts of the treatment of rapidly growing
finance, healthcare, and professional-business services as intermediate
consumption of the economy. I argue that these services do not produce final uses
for households, and thus they become the costs of the net product. The contribution
of my research is a new measurement of real output and its application to
current questions about the U.S. political economy.
In my first chapter, I adjust the
expenditures side of national accounts by using input-output data of the Bureau
of Economic Analysis and arrive at a slower growth after 1980. The second
chapter expands the adjustments to income side by employing consumer expenditure
survey data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; it finds sharper wage-profit
inequality since 1985. The third chapter focuses on value-added side
adjustments and discusses industry growth rates and distributions of income.
My research investigates the
mismeasurement of the GDP of our economies from a new angle which, as a
by-product, takes an important portion of rent-seeking activities that are
concentrated in banking, health industry, and legal services out of national
income. As a policy recommendation, restricting finance to funding productive
investment, lowering healthcare costs, and reducing the costs of the legal system will reduce
the cost of producing the value added, thus creating new opportunities for
growth. National accounts will become more in line with the social goals of a
higher standard of living and welfare.
Contact Email:
tercr677@newschool.edu